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268 11:55 observations were taken for lati- tude, and the results of these with a mean of the longitudinal lines taken during the morning, gave an accurate position of the ship at noon. This was THE MARINE REVIEW the latitude and longitude observations be of any benefit on these waters. Our distance between lights on ordinary courses is too short to make astro- nomical navigation of any real value, HOISTING A CUTTER BY ELECTRIC CRANE bent on the signal halyard, and at the first stroke of the bell, shot up to the yard arm as a report of our position to the admiral, after which the coal used during the last 24 hours and the coal on hand at noon were reported. The noon position and the distance run since the preceding noon was then Culetead On the charts, both in the chart house and on the officers' and crew's bulletin board and the noon dead reckoning position corrected. At about 1:30 and again around 3:30 long- itude observations were taken, and when the weather was propitious, just at dusk, as the first of the stars came out and before the horizon became ob- scured, star sights were taken as a final check on the position. These are especially valuable because of their accuracy and because an observation of two of them properly selected gives two lines whose intersection estab- lishes a fix at once without the neces- sity of waiting for additional sights. It is sometimes difficult, however, to get conditions in which one can see distinctly both the stars and the hori- zon, as these two factors are abso- lutely essential. The determining and reporting of the 8:00 p. m. position concludes the navigator's day's work while at sea, although within sight of land his work is governed entirely by the exigencies of the situation and requires constant vigilance both day and night. I have been asked a good many times as to whether a knowledge of this work would be of value to men sailing the lakes, and am decidedly of the opinion that only in very rare in- stances would the ability to work out and the fact that our horizon is so often obscured by fog or smoke or is interrupted by the land, would make it impossible to get satisfactory re- sults. The noon positions as reported by the various ships supposed to have equally good navigators varied from 10 to 20 miles, which would not do for lake sailing. I have seen some cases where early morning star~sights might have been of some value, but these are too rare to pay for the time and attention necessary to master and become expert in the solving of these problems. tain has already too many things which The--great~-lakes*-cap--- July, 1914. It is generally realized that the na- val battle of the future will be a mat- ter of seconds and minutes and not of hours, and as a result the problem constantly confronting the command. er-in-chief is to have every crew Teady to do the most efficient fighting in the quickest possible time. As a result, the period from 9:15 to 11:30 daily is devoted to drills covering some phase of preparation for battle. Fifteen to 20 minutes of vigorous setting up ex- ercises based on the new and highly scientific Swedish movement serve to keep the men in health and to build up as fine a body of men from a phy- sical standpoint as can be found any- where. On this particular trip the probability of action in Mexico was daily before us and largely influenced the nature of the drills. Tenting and field canvas were gotten out and aired; the battalion was equipped with packs for landing; knapsacks were over- hauled and re-packed and an unusual amount of time was spent on infantry and small arms drill. To one familiar with this careful preparation last fall, the machine-like precision with which the blue jackets and marines from the Utah and the Florida took the cus- toms house" at Vera 'Craz~ on April 21 and 22 came as no surprise. Fire drill, collision drill and abandon- ship drill all had their place, but more important than all others from a naval standpoint was the daily work with the big guns. The careful daily train- ing which alone can make possible the efficiency of the ships as they go on the range for battle target practice includes the actual work of loading with. dummy ammunition sighting at CURIOUS FRENCH ROWBOATS ABOUT THE FLEET it is absolutely necessary for him to master thoroughly to bother with this subject which would at best be of questionable value to him. a supposed enemy (either the colliers or the other division of the battleship) checking the sighting by means of an umpire and extra instruments to see